The Superfortress B-29 bomber was the
plane used to drop the world’s first atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, Aug. 6 and 9, 1945 in the Enola Gay B29 Superfortress. It was designed in 1940 as a replacement for the B-17 Flying Fortress and B-24 Liberator. It was mainly used in the Pacific war zone as the very long range capacity enabled it to reach targets across the Pacific Ocean in Japan. It was a technological leap from other bomber designs. The B-29 Superfortress was pressurized for high altitudes and had remotely-controlled gun turrets. It had four supercharged Wright R-3350-23 engines which gave it the range to carry large bomb loads over the Pacific Ocean. The B-29 Superfortress entered operational service with the AAF in mid-1944 and had an effective range of 3,250 miles. Airfields had to be lengthened because of the long take off required by the B-29 Super fortress.

Operation MATTERHORN was the name given to the AAF 20th Air Force India-based B-29 Superfortresses job of bombing Japan from forward bases in China. As Island Hopping allied forces made advances in the South Pacific the Twentieth Air Force moved it’s B-29 operations to nearer bases in the Marianas Islands and then from the islands of Saipan, Guam and Tinian. During the brief span of 16 months 28,000 combat sorties against Japan were flown.

The B-29 was SAC’s first post WW2 Cold War
aircraft 60 Superfortresses had been modified to carry the atomic bomb by the end of 1948. In 1950 B 29 Superfortresses were used for conventional bombing operations in North Korea. It was gradually replaced by the jet engined B-52 Stratofortresses bomber from 1955 onwards.